How to see the line and column number in a text editor
Jotter by Zaweba's status bar shows the line and column of the cursor as you move, along with the selection, character and line counts.
Look at the status bar along the bottom of Jotter by Zaweba. It shows the line and column of the cursor, and the numbers change as you type, click or move with the arrow keys. Alongside them you get the current selection and the number of characters and lines, so most questions about where you are in a file are answered without opening anything.
That is useful whenever a program reports a problem by line number, or when text has to start at a particular column.
Finding a line from an error message
A typical case: a program refuses a settings file and says there is a problem on line 87. Open the file in Jotter with File > Open or by dropping it on the window. Click near where you think line 87 is and look at the status bar, then move up or down with the arrow keys until it reads 87. The column number takes you to the exact character if the message gives one.
For long files, the find bar gets you close faster. Press Ctrl+F, type a word you know is near the problem, and press Enter or F3 to jump to it. Then fine-tune with the status bar.
Lines and wrapping
Line numbers in the status bar are the real lines in the file. If word wrap is on, one long line may be folded over several rows on screen, but it still counts as one line. That matters for error messages, which always count file lines, not screen rows.
If you are unsure, turn word wrap off with View > Word wrap. Each file line then sits on one screen row and the two always match.
Counting characters and lines
The same bar shows how many characters and lines the text has, and how much you have selected. Select a paragraph and you can see at once how long it is, which helps when you are writing to a character limit for a form, a title or a short description. Paste a list with one item per line and the line count tells you how many items there are.
Because the figures update as you type, you can trim text down to a limit while watching the number.
The rest of the bar
While you're down there, the status bar also shows the zoom level, the line endings (CRLF for Windows or LF for Unix) and the file's encoding, UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, UTF-16 or ANSI. These are the other things people tend to need when they open a file someone else made, and they are all in the same place.
Why it is in the status bar
Jotter is meant to be a notepad you keep open all day, so it puts useful information where you can glance at it rather than behind menus. There are no line numbers down the side of the page; the status bar does that job without taking any space from your text. Jotter by Zaweba stays small and quick to open, and the line and column are there the moment it is.
